What is Employee Engagement?

As per Kevin Kruse, “Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.” An engaged employee is very proud of both his work and the company. Their engagement is towards their commitment to work beyond the call of duty rather than only meeting personal goals. An engaged employee is an asset to the organization and its growth. The paradox is that almost half of engaged employees in recent times are considering opportunities external to their organization. What could be the reason? What has changed? Transformation of employee engagement in age of Digitization

Enabling the Power of forbidden

Since the beginning of mankind’s journey forbidden has been the most attractive. Technology disruption has led to a relative comparison of jobs on multiple social media platforms, Raising employees’ career growth aspirations and expectations. Constant social connectivity has had a huge effect on happiness quotient at work. It is not about being ungrateful for what we have, but simply about getting lured by the power of the forbidden. It is not so much that one is looking for another job, as much as looking at one’s own reflection – the other half of an adventurer. Today an employee looks for exciting and challenging work followed by career growth, learning, and development as per a poll published in the book Love ‘em or Lose ‘em. So then what inhibits the organizations to simply adapt to the new burgeoning trend? Is digitization creating more complex engagement models?

Creating complex engagement models

With multi-generation workforce, employee engagement has become more complexed. A new generation of leadership and employee is shaping, categorized by an ease with digital communications and a willingness to embrace the virtual work environment. There is a major shift towards a fast-paced and collaborative environment where self-expression is encouraged. “Digital employee experience” is a major HR trend. Majority of the workforce entailing millennials fully embrace mobile and social media and they are well educated, technology savvy and goal oriented. Liberal use of new media and collaboration tools can empower employee engagement, encourage teamwork and support spontaneous recognition. The present workforce of multi-taskers needs a multichannel engagement model which is more complex than before. However, the other battle is how to address the non – millennials in a multi-generation organization environment and structure? Organizations continue to face more agility issue than ever before.

Organization Change agility an issue

In view of Ilya Bonic – President of Mercer’s Career business – engaged and empowered employees can put the organization on growth trajectory. In the age of digitization employees having the right skills and opportunities have the capability to develop innovative solutions to advance the business and themselves. The Mercer study points that HR leaders top priorities for 2017 is building skills across its workforce, high potential identification, succession planning and attracting top external talent. This categorically indicates that 2017’s priority is towards developing employee capabilities. Possibly due to digitization organizations are not yet change agile. As per the study in India only 11% of executive say that their organization is “change agile”. Giving a broad picture that there is organization focus on skill development in order to redesign their structures. About 83% of Indian companies plan to redesign their organization structure in two years and for that for 2017 HR leader’s priorities is to build relevant skills across workforce in 2017.

Finally, while digitization maybe the main issue there as per a Forbes article – What is Employee Engagement by Kevin Kruse – employee engagement is not employee happiness, employee satisfaction or Employee loyalty. They are non-convergent with employee engagement.

Loyalty is not equal to employee engagement

As per Towers Watson study engagement does not imply loyalty. Gone are the days when career monogamy was looked upon. Today the millennials who consist of more than half of the workforce don’t wait for companies to pick them but rather they design their own careers and hence choose their companies. Towers Watson’s study reveals some frightening statistics for Indian employers. Looks like very high engaged – 42 percent employees are considering job change within next two years. One company for life is trademarked as old fashioned. Today choosing to stay with one company when you could leave is looked down upon. No one is specifically congratulated for staying with their existing company. There are more likes, comments or social earnings for the new awesome job rather than staying with the existing job. So what do you think? Is this an opportunity? What will be the future?

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